New Ikkyu-san Movie in Development

Toei Animation has announced its joint development of a new Ikkyu-san anime movie in collaboration with Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Media Group (SMG). The movie will be based on Toei’s 1975 historical comedy (not to be confused with the 1978 baseball anime with the same name) loosely based on the childhood of 15th century Japanese Buddhist monk Ikkyu Soujun. The original Ikkyu-san anime had 296 TV episodes and a 1978 Ikkyu-san to Yancha-hime (Ikkyu-san and the Mischievous Princess) motion picture.

Toei will handle pre-production work on the new film, providing story concept, storyboards, character design, background art, and color design guidelines. The majority of the animation will be done by Chinese artists. SMG is presently also developing the anime film Tibet Inu Monogatari (Tibetan Dog Story) in collaboration with Japanese studio Madhouse.

Ikkyu-san 1975 TV series opening:

Source: Anime News Network